This invention relates to the domain of ground service for aircraft and relates more particularly to a towing vehicle for maneuvering an aircraft and for supplying pressurized air to the aircraft during the taxiing phase before takeoff.
The taxiing phase of an aircraft before its takeoff is the phase during which the aircraft moves up to the threshold of a runway, taking traffic lanes or “taxiways.”
In order to ensure its movement on the taxiways, an aircraft conventionally uses its engines. Operating the engines on the ground consumes a significant quantity of fuel and this problem is exacerbated by the formation of queues of aircraft waiting before the threshold of the runway.
A solution envisaged for this problem consists in towing the aircraft, with the engines shut down, on the taxiways using towing vehicles dedicated to ground service for the aircraft.
This solution involves providing a pneumatic supply to the aircraft during towing in order to make certain systems of the aircraft function (air conditioning, cooling for the avionics, etc.) and in order to be able to start the engines before the runway threshold. Some towing vehicles are equipped with pneumatic means, manually connectable to the aircraft, in order to provide such a pneumatic supply. However, the manual disconnection of these pneumatic means of the aircraft necessitates an operator descending onto the taxiways, which is strictly forbidden by the aeronautical regulations. This solution is therefore not implemented.